Website design By BotEap.comIs telemarketing a dying strategy? For the owner of this business, the phone represents the biggest distraction of my workday, rattling my nerves with its startling clamor, halting my productivity, and breaking my train of thought at times, never to recover after its insolent intrusion into my quiet workplace. job. .

Website design By BotEap.comWhen the “do not call” lists were first established, I enthusiastically signed up. There’s nothing more annoying than receiving a sales pitch over the phone as you sit down to dinner, especially one without an invitation! Of course, since I also run a business, I still get my share of telemarketing interruptions since the “do not call” record is for personal use only. Still, there are plenty of loopholes that make some telemarketing calls legitimate, regardless of whether or not your personal phone number is on the record.

Website design By BotEap.comAccording to the FCC, these types of calls are still allowed:

Website design By BotEap.com• Calls from any organization with which you have a pre-established business relationship.

Website design By BotEap.com• Calls from anyone who has received prior written authorization.

Website design By BotEap.com• Non-commercial calls.

Website design By BotEap.com• Calls on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations.

Website design By BotEap.comWhile I am a little more forgiving of such interruptions to my business, since I sometimes need to make phone calls myself, with each passing day, month, and year, I feel less motivated to pick up the phone for fear of disturbing someone without realize. process. And when I make the call, my first statement is, “I’m sorry to bother you. Am I interrupting something?” Fortunately, with the sole exception of one person I currently do business with, everyone I deal with is reachable via email.

Website design By BotEap.comEmail has changed the world, at least my world, and it surpasses the telephone in a very important way. It provides written documentation of what is being communicated, a legal basis for review, should future questions arise about what was said.

Website design By BotEap.comI was recently told off by a client I’ve severed ties with because she accused me of shirking my duties by refusing to “take notes” while handing out complicated and conflicting work instructions over the phone. I suggested that she email me those details, citing the benefits I mentioned above. Stating that writing is not her forte (or any kind of communication, she might add), she took issue with my reminder that we might need a legal document to clarify our plan, email being the ideal solution. The reason I decided to end our employment relationship after only one year was based on his tendency to claim that I did not do what he asked me to do and therefore did not owe me a fee for work done. However, after I had stood my ground and convinced her to send me an email, her convoluted instructions spread out in a series of obtuse, unrelated, and indefinite messages were enough to block even the most lucid among us. I had really tried to work with her, but in the end I just had to give up. She was impossible.

Website design By BotEap.comI say this with over 35 years of experience behind me and hundreds of raving satisfied customers, some of whom I still work with after all this time, and all of whom pay me without hesitation.

Website design By BotEap.comSince a phone conversation is easy to misinterpret and the details easy to forget without something in writing to refer to, especially after the passage of time, something else has happened that has fundamentally changed the way phones are used in today’s world. .

Website design By BotEap.comI saw it coming years ago, when I was young, naive, and with no sales experience of any kind. Before the popularity of the Internet and email, he was responsible for ad sales in an expensive military yearbook called The West Point Howitzer. The ideal advertising candidate was one of the US national defense companies that was usually represented by a large advertising agency. My job was to find the right contacts within the company, within the agency, or both. With little more than my own personal intuition that a particular company might want to communicate with West Point’s military leaders of tomorrow, I found myself regularly conversing with switchboard operators who would get me through someone’s voicemail. My days were spent delivering creative messages, sometimes rambling for several minutes, only to meet with total failure to get any kind of response. I used to call it “getting lost in phone limbo.” The phone has become the ultimate escape tool: just leave a message and don’t hold your breath. In the few cases where some kind soul actually called me back, it was to tell me that I was calling the wrong person and that it wasn’t their job!

Website design By BotEap.comLately, however, there has also been a shift in culture, largely due to texting and social media. It is rare the individual who prefers direct contact today. Those who shamelessly and stubbornly cling to the traditional use of the phone call are possibly guilty of seeking solely personal entertainment, at the expense of the comfort of others. March 18, 2011 New York Times In an article by Pamela Paul that appeared in the Sunday Styles section, Nielsen Media reports that, “even on mobile phones, voice spend has been on a downward trend, with text spend expected to surpass it within three years” . Citing further from this article, one professional quipped, “I remember when I was a kid, the rule was, ‘Don’t call anyone after 10 p.m.’ Now the rule is, ‘Don’t call anyone. Never.'”

Website design By BotEap.comI thought I was the only one avoiding the use of the phone – ironic for someone who runs a marketing business and doesn’t even have a cell phone! However, it’s hard to believe that phone use is declining, as I hear people making obnoxious conversations while driving, shopping, dining, or waiting in line without realizing or despite someone being within earshot.

Website design By BotEap.comI receive three types of telemarketing calls to which Yo I am now the master of dodge: requests to purchase a product or service for my own business or for any of my clients’ businesses; Donation requests; Requests to participate in a survey. Some of these calls are made by living people. But lately, more and more of these calls are automated. I couldn’t be happier with this. No longer must I draw from my stores of off-the-cuff statements that stop the caller in his tracks, unable to continue through the hurdle I have presented. Automated calls do not require business decorum, proper etiquette, or courteous etiquette at all. The only action required is to hang up. End of interruption.

Website design By BotEap.comIn cases where there is a real person on the other end of the phone, often from some Asian or remote location, I use the following response: “Sorry. What is your deadline? Can you fax or email me in writing?” ?” request so you can present it at our meeting for everyone to review?” For survey requests: “Sorry. I don’t have time to participate right now. Can you try another time, please?”

Website design By BotEap.comEven though they say they will, no one bothers to call me back. Mission accomplished.

Website design By BotEap.comIn all the years I’ve been orchestrating marketing strategies, telemarketing hasn’t been one I’ve recommended. But I see its role, or the role of making a phone call, in certain situations including asking permission to send an email; request or verify contact information; request the sending of a late payment; and verify receipt of material sent by email or postal mail. If deadlines are involved, sometimes there is no choice but to call someone for their timely decision, with all calls preceded by proper apologies.

Website design By BotEap.comOther than that, for this salesperson, telemarketing only serves to disrupt my concentration, demanding that I stop what I’m doing to stop his rude aural interference. From that perspective, I’m hardly in a cooperative frame of mind to patiently listen to your message, consider its value, and conclude a transaction. Compared to the convenience of email, where I can choose when I want to take the time to review its content, the days of telemarketing (and possibly direct mail, the postal service, printed yellow pages, and printed business stationery, among others), in my opinion, can be numbered.

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